The True Confessions of a Nine-Tailed Fox

Chapter 140: Coming Along Beautifully

The morning of the battle dawned clear and bright, with an endless, cloudless blue sky stretching above the capital. The sunlight blazed off the gold disks on the belt around Katu's waist, and glinted off the gold thread in the embroidery all over his robes. The butterfly spirits who fluttered about his head and shoulders seemed to glow.

Once again, the High Priest of the Kitchen God stood atop a platform that raised him on high and brought him closer to Heaven and the Divine Intercessor as whose Voice he served. (Well, mostly so the terrified residents of the capital could get a good view of him.)

Just as we had during the Battle of Black Sand Creek, Stripey and I flew overhead, monitoring the situation from above. Most of Goldhill had poured into the streets, squeezing themselves in shoulder to shoulder, to await the arrival of the demon army, and to see whether they would be saved or devoured.

I found the silence eerie. The spectators at the Battle of Lychee Grove hadn't been this quiet. I almost wished some hawkers would start shoving their way through the crowd to selling fresh steamed buns or something, even if any disturbance risked a stampede or another riot.

Unwilling or, more accurately, unable to do anything that might signal less than complete confidence in the outcome, Jullia had opted to await the outcome in her throne room, with Anthea by her side. Having failed one empress, the raccoon dog seemed determined not to fail this queen. Such was her resolve that she'd even let us buy all the gold leaf we wanted to adorn Katu's platform.

All we're missing is a giant catfish, Stripey commented, startling me out of admiring the effect.

You can joke about that?!

Certainly no one who'd witnessed his death could, and I'd have expected it to be even more traumatic for the one who was crushed to death between Lord Silurus' steel teeth. That was no joke of an end: I could personally attest to that.

But Stripey only shrugged his wings, less dramatically than usual since he was using them to fly. Sure, why not?

But he killed you! He ate you!

It happens. He was faster, or I wasn't fast enough. It is what it is.

Maybe, a former bandit was more forgiving or blasé about death, but that certainly wasn't how I saw it. I thought it was completely unacceptable that anyone had killed one of my friends, and I took great pleasure in picturing Lord Silurus reincarnating life after life as a tapeworm. He would never rise again. If I ever took over Heaven, I'd make sure of it.

In the meantime, I had to make sure that today's miracle proceeded as planned.

There they come! Stripey pointed a wing to the west.

A dark cloud of flying demons blocked out the sun. In their shadow, their landbound comrades swept over the rice paddies like a tidal wave.

Time to tell the others! Folding my wings, I dove down at the platform, calling, They're coming! They're coming!

My friends – and it really was only my friends who were out here, braving the demon horde along with me – erupted into action. Lodia bustled around Katu, fussing over the hang of his robes one last time. The butterflies beat their wings, raising a breeze that swirled his cape and gave our audience a good view of the Kitchen God's origin story embroidered on the back of his robes.

"Dusty!" Floridiana called as she flicked open her dish of seal paste and prepared her seal. "Are you ready?"

"I am not Dusty, but The Valiant Prince of the Victorious Whirlwind, Vanquisher of Invaders!"